s
into practice at Hebuterne. As soon as we arrived, a thorough
reconnaissance of the enemy positions was made, and we began to make
preparation for a raid of some magnitude. This was carried out by "B"
company, of which Capt. Grey Burn was now in command, and the officers
selected to go over with the raiders were Lieut. Wender, D.C.M., who had
previously served with the 1st Battalion in Mesopotamia, 2nd-Lt. Milne
and 2nd-Lt. Goodier. Goodier had been a sergeant in "C" company, and for
his excellent services at Bucquoy had been recommended for promotion in
the field to the commissioned ranks, a distinction which came through
while we were at Henu.

It was known that the enemy held his front line in a series of isolated
posts, each armed with light machine guns. Curiously enough, whether
through lack of material or not we never knew, he paid little or no
attention to wiring in these days, except in utilising what old wire lay
about. One of these posts was located within one hundred yards of our
front line in Fusilier Trench, and this, it was decided, should be
raided. At 1 a.m. on the morning of June 16th a three minutes' shrapnel
barrage was opened on the enemy's trench, while a box barrage of H.E.
was placed all round the portion to be raided. At the end of this time
the boys leapt over in four parties, three to make for the trench and
the fourth to act as support and as a covering party for withdrawal.
Then it was found that the shelling had hardly been sufficient for
numerous enemy flares went up, throwing daylight over the whole scene,
and our men were greeted by heavy machine gun fire. Wender, who was on
the right, jumped over first and rapidly dashed off for the Boche
trench, leaving his men well behind. He was never seen or heard of
again, and it must be presumed that he was killed in the trench. Goodier
got his men across on the left and they jumped into the trench, only to
find it filled with concertina barbed wire, so they came out again and
worked their way along the top to the centre, being by this time heavily
bombed. They came to a party of Huns who immediately fled, but Goodier
seized one and he and his now tiny party returned triumphantly with
their prisoner and with fragments of bombs in their bodies. Milne,
having ranged over part of the Boche trench to find no one, covered the
withdrawal and then brought his party in. It was an extraordinary show
in which everyone had displayed considerable pluck, and